British Hang Gliding Nationals 19-25 July '09 - Spain

More info here

Striking for Safety - same could be said of Sprogs?

In Italy this week the peloton went on strike

Maybe at the Worlds a similar thing may happen with all the top guys? Click here to see what I'm talking about - skip to about 4.45

Quotes from the video:

“As a group of professional athletes …...... have to have a fully independent riders organisation that represents our interest .....… so we as riders get to have the right to say this is safe or this is not safe or this will do or this will not do …. Without a unified front we will have this problem for ever.”

.....Ring any bells?

So, do ‘we’ really want a 'company' telling us what we can and can't do - paying the extra money in competitions to have people measure our gliders and say "you are .2 of a degree out, you're dsq'd today"? At the moment it seems only the main comps ie the Worlds and Europeans which are affected but for sure if the DHV get its foot in the door which it seems it is trying to do in what I feel the wrong way then maybe our competitions will be very poorly attended, if attended at all.

I feel it is the pilots responsibility and with the correct education I am sure we will not have the stupidity like we've had in the past of pilots having ridiculously low sprogs. I feel a good percentage of the accidents certainly that I have witnessed in competitions are due to conditions that we fly in (not just sprogs) and yes I know people can say "you don't have to fly if you don't want to fly" and that's fair enough if you are at the end of the field but if you are leading or at the top of the field and have spent a lot of money/time/commitment in getting there you are not going to be sat on the hill - that is what a competitive nature is all about!

Got a point?

More on Sprogs here:
Oz Report
Hadewych
Corinna

British Open Round 1 - The Movies

Markus Kinch has put together movies from the First Round of the British Open Series - thanks Markus.

You will be able to see from the movies the type of conditions that us Brits fly comps in, shame I couldn't be there.

Round 1 - Day 1


Round 1 - Day 2


Round 1 - Day 3

British Open 2009 - The Results

Congratulations to Dave Matthews who won the British Open after 3 decent tasks with an impressive margin.

Shame about Grant who lost a score for a day after making goal – very unlucky.

From the feedback it sounds like it was a real good fun competition. Shame I missed it I would have loved to be there.

2nd - Tony


3rd - Craig


It’s the first time there has been a Sports Class and it seems it was a great success with some doing their first cross country ~ Congratulations to Craig Ennis.

British Open - Results
Task 1 Merthyr 60 k race Open Distance
Task 2 Merthyr-Hay Bluff- Raglan 68,8 km Race to Goal with 9 startgate(s)
Task 3 Abertysswg to Sherston 73,2 km Race to Goal with 10 startgate(s)

Id Name Nat Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Dave Matthews Moyes Litespeed S - 517 787 895 2199
2 Tony Stephens Aeros Combat - 519 749 522 1790
3 Craig Dolwin Wills Wing T2 - 365 466 872 1703
4 Gary Wirdnam Wills Wing T2C - 401 465 689 1555
5 Mike Armstrong Aeros Combat - 210 415 845 1470
6 David Shields Moyes Litespeed S - 210 405 693 1308
7 Patrick Buxton Wills Wing T2 - 210 383 711 1304
8 Ron Richardson Litespeed - 417 884 1301
9 Justin Needham Moyes Litespeed - 415 719 154 1288
10 Grant Crossingham Moyes Litespeed S - 0 929 242 1171
11 Trevor Birkbeck Wills Wing T2 - 210 599 316 1125
12 Nigel Bray Wills Wing T2 - 406 712 1118
13 Graham Phipps Wills Wing T2 - 420 456 211 1087
14 Jamie Cannon Moyes Litespeed - 237 847 1084
15 Bill Bell Wills Wing T2c - 210 484 363 1057
16 Brett Wright Moyes LitespeedS - 339 389 307 1035
17 Richard Lever Climax C2 - 554 416 970
18 Bruce Kavanagh Wills Wing T2 - 250 376 321 947
19 Barry Woodhead Avian Cheetah - 210 426 281 917
20 Stewart Reid Icaro Zero7 - 210 201 490 901
21 Steve Green Aeros Combat - 340 550 0 890
22 Robin Rhodes Moyes Litespeed - 432 420 852
23 Martin Colclough Airborne C4 - 312 201 260 773
24 Jenny Buck Airborne C4 - 210 201 345 756
25 Tim King Moyes Litespeed - 210 201 341 752
26 Wayne Thompson Aeros Combat - 0 201 405 606
27 Clive Belbin Airborne C4 - 0 414 114 528
28 Murray Brown Aeros Combat L - 210 201 114 525
28 Markus Kinch Moyes LitespeedS - 210 201 114 525
30 James Hogan Icaro Laminar MR - 0 400 114 514
31 Dave Cooper Moyes Litespeed - 0 398 114 512
32 Marek Pisarek Moyes LitespeedS - 0 201 302 503
33 Andy Scott Wills Wing T2 - 210 201 0 411
34 Kevin Winter Talon T1 - 392 0 392
35 Norman Potts Combat 2 - 201 114 315
35 Mark Stewart Moyes Litespeed - 0 201 114 315
37 Jimbo Seward Moyes Litespeed - 0 210 0 210
38 Tony Moore Wills Wing Eagle - 0 201 0 201
38 David Tyrer Wills Wing T2 - 0 201 0 201
40 Steve Penfold Airborne C4 - 0

SPORTS CLASS - RESULTS

Task Date Distance
T1 Task 1 Merthyr 30 k race 2009-05-01 12:45 Open Distance
T2 Task 2 Merthyr to Raglan 2009-05-02 12:00 33,1 km Race to Goal with 9 startgate(s)
T3 Task 3 Abertysswg to Chepstow 2009-05-03 13:45 42,6 km Race to Goal with 5 startgate(s)

# Id Name Nat Glider Sponsor T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Craig Ennis M GBR Avian Cheetah Evo 0 654 625 1279
2 Sergey Kataev M GBR Aeros Discus 56 411 636 1103
3 Andrew Hurst M GBR Airwave Magic 3 56 597 232 885
4 Kris Holland M GBR Moyes Litespeed 0 244 579 823
5 Alan James M GBR Wills Wing T2 0 551 0 551
6 David Moore M GBR Wills Wing U2 0 244 250 494
7 Paul Whatley M GBR Wills Wing Sport 2 56 244 29 329
8 James Roy M GBR Aeros Discus 56 0 232 288
9 John Cheale M GBR Wills Wing Sport 2 0 0

British Open Series : Round One - S E Wales

Whilst I am at work (sad) Round One of the British Open Series is taking place (1-5 May) in SE Wales. Seems that there has been some pretty good (for British weather) tasks over the past 3 days and I am pretty jealous not to be there!

Work commitments mean I am only able to attend Round Three which takes place over the August Bank Holiday (Mid Wales).

Round Two actually takes place at the end of this month on my 'home turf' but …. I am working again!

The scores for day 1 and 2 are now up on the website.

The Top 5 after 2 tasks are:-

1st - Dave Matthews










2nd - Tony Stephens
3rd - Justin Needham
4th - Grant Crossingham
5th - Neil Atkinson

Markus Kinch usually makes a great video of the Open Series – watch this space it will be available soon I am sure…

155k Goal Flight

.......well nearly!

I had a pleasant flight on Sunday from the Newark aerotow.

The sky was looking great from 10am but we had a bit of a late start - it is a fair drive from York – and we didn't get airborne until early afternoon.





You can see from the pictures that the sky looked amazing but the clouds were not working as you would expect with only 200 to 300 ft a minute climbs with the occasional 6-8 up's of super smooth one handed turning.

We set a goal to Whitby which as I think on was a mistake. I have made Whitby before but as its a seaside town and so on a good day will have sea breezed! A Pickering goal next time I think?

The wind on the airfield was SSE so would be blowing us into the airspace that splits N and S so we would have to stay East of the Derwent then West of the Humber bridge to avoid Humberside airspace.

The tow was without problems (cheers Bob) and I pinged of at 1800' in a 2up. Didn't get to base and was thinking that the ground would meet me before the next climb but thankfully that was not the case. Another 1-2up under an amazing black bottom perfect cloud but again not to base so off we go again cross wind to the next amazing looking cloud and again 2up! This time I was able to take it to the top at 5500 and boy it was cold. Must have been freezing at base. Now I have more options and decide to glide through a blue hole and half way get my first 6up in the blue! I keep looking up and see the birth of a Cu that I meet and wish it well and on my way I go again.



Now I can see the Humber estuary in the distance and a small gliding club. A couple of gliders on the ground and only one flying but not turning. I fly over around 3000ft under a lovely black bottomed cloud that is hardly working at all only ½ up zero – oh dear where to go now? Can't go too far to the West or the East because of airspace and to the North direct is blue and the Humber is pretty wide at this point so we hanger almost 90degree West towards Scunthorpe steelworks. I get to the lowest part of the flight (apart from the end) at almost 2000ft and just dribble along in a ½ up and head again towards the steelworks where I can see them pouring moulton steel out in the open – its like the surface of the sun incredibly bright. I then bimble into a 3-4up which I take up to base which is now 6000ft and colder. I then glide directly over the steelworks to the next best looking cloud and top up en route in a beautiful smelly 6up from the works. I can now head north again to cross the Humber as the sky all starts to fill in, the big blue holes are rapidly disappearing but there is a thin strip directly of where I am of sunshine on the ground. Half way across the Humber I get a beautiful super smooth 4up which takes me back to base again at 6200ft.

The Humber - looking East towards the Humber Bridge


Now wondering where to go. Do I fly home to York? Or do I continue to the goal? I went for the goal.

Its now a slow, slow glide – squeaking all I can from the glider bimbling into ½ups and zeros. The wind now is SSW 13-15mph. So am getting a perfect blow up the backside. I scramble along wishing I'd flown to York and landed in my back garden as the sky is now totally overcast and over to the east I can see a seabreeze front. I've been in this situation a few times before and this situation is fine as long as its in the flats but as soon as it hits the Moors and the high ground it destroys the front and does all sorts of strange things. Which is exactly what happened!

I get to where the tendril cloud was but has now gone and it is very very rough with nothing going up. I fly along and it smooths out and I'm low and picking out fields to land still with 13ish mph of wind showing on the instrument and then bang I'm into an extremely rough 6up which almost turns the glider over sideways on two occasions. I hang on and then suddenly its gone, I search around but can't find it and so go for a glide down wind and I am now motoring over the ground. I turn above the field I aim to land in and realise I'm drifting backwards! I pull a little VG, maintain and just literally come down vertically fighting the glider all the way with really turbulent air – perfect landing without incident – glad to be on the ground at that point. The wind is so strong SSE I can hardly walk with the glider.


I was 19km short of Goal at Whitby!
Flight time 2hrs 50mins
Total altitude gain of 22,080ft
Max altitude of 6,108ft

It was an extremely enjoyable flight and the Moyes RS 3.5 is performing very well. I am getting more and more comfortable with every flight. I am getting it more to my liking now with very neutral coordinated turns as I find high siding very tiring on a long flight and have got the nice light bar pressure - maybe too light?;-) Just need a little hill soaring with top landing for the final tweaks.

A good day from the aerotow:
Andy Buchan flew to York – brilliant flight for him on his WWT2
Steve Leeman (Moyes S4) landed at Beverley – First flight from Newark (I think he'll be coming back for more)

Aerial photos courtesy of Steve Leeman as I foolishly didn't take my camera :-(

Thanks again for the tow Bob and a big thanks to Doris too who arrived just as I finished packing away the glider and just in time to get to the pub for a Sunday Lunch and pint of Real Ale. A perfect end to a near perfect day.

Just a thought :-)

(Is it Julia in the photo?)





The Chabre 2009 blog refers to the recent team GB selection issues. Dave Glover has given a VERY valid comment that would ease problems in the future for a lot of teams/countries.

David Glover said...

"I would like to suggest for the future - World's Organizers allow any pilot in the top 50 World Ranking is allowed a spot to compete if they do not make their national team - they would be eligible only for the individual medal but their score would not be able to be part of any team scoring. Foolish not to do everything possible to allow for the best pilots to attend.”

One has to question the purpose of the WPRS sometimes. Pilots spend a lot of time, money and effort trying to climb the slippery ladder to prove their ability and worth and to be excluded from the “main” events can be, or IS very demotivating. Most of the top 50 places will already be given to chosen individuals which would leave the few left with a chance of competing against the rest and hopefully proving themselves as worthy pilots and gaining much needed experience in high level comps of which there is only 1 a year (The Pre-Worlds and Worlds) unlike the womens who get 2 worlds!

The extra pilots would of course not be able to score for their team but fly as individuals. It is my opinion that we should be encouraging a competitiveness from the keen pilots who for whatever reasons do not get chosen to be on their national team - it should be a fair field not a select field!

Anyone else agree?

UK Nationals : Ager, Spain 19-25 July 2009

The UK Hang Gliding Nationals will take place in the same place and directly after the Pre Euros in Ager, Spain between 19 and 25 July 2009.

Register for the UK Nationals HERE
The entry fee is £90.00 or €130.00.

Day 5 & Prizegiving

The day was canned today. There was a strong tail and cross wind and when the thermals did come up the front it was very windy and gusty. The organisers set a task at 99.7km but much to the relief of many pilots they canned the day - you could tell this by the cheers which went up.

The Austrian team was incredibly strong and will probably kick some a*** in France this year.

We've just returned from an excellent prizegiving - The winners were:
The results are here

 

 

 

Photos Day 4